Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Has $51,000 Stock Position in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lowered its stake in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 35.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 9,618 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Gerdau were worth $51,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GGB. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Gerdau by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 98,194,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,802,000 after purchasing an additional 9,215,971 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in shares of Gerdau by 16.6% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 5,700,747 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,418,000 after purchasing an additional 810,621 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Gerdau by 138.7% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,606,824 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,148,000 after purchasing an additional 3,257,463 shares in the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its position in shares of Gerdau by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 4,803,639 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $13,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,557,174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in shares of Gerdau during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,775,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Performance

NYSE GGB opened at $2.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.52 and a beta of 1.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.96. Gerdau S.A. has a 1 year low of $2.27 and a 1 year high of $3.79.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.66 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 7.74%. As a group, research analysts expect that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.0188 per share. This is a positive change from Gerdau’s previous dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.95%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GGB. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Gerdau from $3.30 to $2.90 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Gerdau in a research report on Monday, April 7th.

Gerdau Profile

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. The company operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business segments. It also provides semi-finished products, including billets, blooms, and slabs; common long rolled products, such as rebars, wire rods, merchant bars, light shapes, and profiles to the construction and manufacturing industries; drawn products comprising barbed and barbless fence wires, galvanized wires, fences, concrete reinforcing wire mesh, nails, and clamps for manufacturing, construction, and agricultural industries; and special steel products used in auto parts, light and heavy vehicles, and agricultural machinery, as well as in the oil and gas, wind energy, machinery and equipment, mining and rail, and other markets.